Obama Admits Voting As A Senator Against Raising Debt Limit Was ‘Political’

Mediaite.com:

President Obama sat down with George Stephanopoulos to discuss budget issues and the deficit. The interview airs on World News Tonight, but in the preview clip Obama is already making news with his suggestion that one vote of his in the Senate was motivated more by politics than what was good for the country.


On the issue of raising the debt ceiling and whether Obama’s vote as a Senator not to raise it was a mistake, Obama said:


“I think that it’s important to understand the vantage point of a Senator versus the vantage point of a . . . President. When you’re a Senator . . . nobody likes to be tagged as having increased the debt limit for the United States by a trillion dollars . . . As President, you start realizing, ‘You know what? We can’t play around with this stuff. This is the full faith and credit of the United States.’ And so that was just an example of a new Senator, you know, making what is a political vote as opposed to doing what was important for the country. And I’m the first one to acknowledge it.”


Since Obama has learned from his prior misguided voting strategy, now he is hopeful that current members of Congress also realize that the debt crisis is an issue too serious for anyone to continue playing politics.